Capital Group reviews

Very little room for growth. I was literally told by my senior manager that if I want to move up I need to move out since they are not interested in promoting from within. Blatant abuse of the H1B visa program. Clearly looking to reduce headcount through attrition and layoffs in order to replace experienced associates with offshore contractors and/or H1B visa recipients. Approaching 70-80% of IT workforce, at least. Despite loss of key associates workload and deadlines continually becoming more aggressive. Upper management talks about valuing associates, providing growth opportunities, 50/50 ratio of associates/contractors... They talk the talk but clearly don't walk the walk. Vast majority of middle to upper management positions in the past 10 years have been filled by outsiders. Many of them come from Accenture. This has completely transformed the culture of IT and not in a good way. They may have reduced costs but at the expense of the company culture and skilled American workers. These cons are not specific to IT. Business units are also feeling the pain of being squeezed.

I really wanted to like this job, I was recruited by a 3rd party firm and told that it was a temp to potential hire contract position that would last up to 18 months with 3-6 month contract extension periods. I was also told that contractors were almost always hired on FT. I was quoted an hourly rate and given the annual equivalent rate (which seems astronomical compared to what I had been making) and was told I was able to get benefits (health, dental, etc) through the 3rd party firm. What I found was that after my initial contract period, my contract extensions became shorter and shorter with no explanation as to why (even after I had inquired as to the truncation of my contracts). Towards the end, I was living from 45 day contract to 45 day contract. I found that only a small percentage of contractors ever made the transition to FT and if one did, it was only because they went through an excruciating interview process to prove that they were qualified for a job they had already been doing for the previous 18 months. I found that the hourly rate I was quoted was up to $25 dollars an hour less than contractors doing the same work as I was. When I inquired about the discrepancy in wages I was told that Capital would not renegotiate. The benefits I was offered would have cost me over $400 a month for minimum coverage. The job I thought would get me in a better financial position ended up putting me in a cycle of barely being able to pay my monthly bills. But this doesn't even cover the toxic, unregulated and unprofessional environment that I worked in. Contractors are treated as the lowest of the low by FT employees even though they are some of the most qualified and largest amount of work force in the company. FT employees do not communicate pertinent information that will be presented in closed door meetings that you will not be invited to (because you are "contigent" and not deemed necessary) and they will make errors consistently, but somehow those errors will become you, the contractor's, fault. There is limited training, no consistency and the process is constantly changing. You will always be wrong. You will also not be invited to any company sponsored event, no matter the size. Be it a birthday cake in the office next door or a "team" happy hour in your bosses office. You will always be left out and not considered a member of the team. You are and always will be an outsider that is not good enough to be part of the "club". You will have to get used to being expendable, because there is always another person eager for the "good paycheck" and "flexible work environment".